Recall scares spur Congress to sharpen watchdog's teeth

WASHINGTON — A year of recalls and lead scares in the toy industry is spurring Congress toward the largest overhaul in decades of the nation's product safety watchdog.

Lawmakers from both parties are pushing to increase the budget and power of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, motivated by consumer unrest over millions of recalled children's products and revelations by the Tribune of the agency's slow response to reports of deadly cribs and toy magnets.

House and Senate leaders say the question isn't whether Congress will send President Bush a product safety bill early next year; it's how far the reforms will go.

The House unanimously passed a bill this month that tightens lead standards, mandates new toy safety testing and boosts the CPSC's annual budget to $100 million by 2011, an increase of more than 50 percent from 2007. The Senate is mulling a more far-reaching measure that would vastly increase toymakers' lawsuit liability and stop them from blocking the release of safety information.

Whatever negotiators hammer out figures to pass overwhelmingly, leaders in both parties say, and would trigger the most comprehensive changes at the CPSC since the Reagan administration dramatically scaled back the agency in the 1980s.

Bush already has signed a bill that includes a $17 million funding increase for the agency next year, directed in part to bolstering efforts to monitor Chinese-made toys for lead and other hazards.

There's a simple political explanation for the consensus.

"Parents are very concerned," said Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), a key player in crafting the product safety legislation.

A number of lawmakers have pushed CPSC reforms for years without success. Their efforts gained steam in May when the Tribune detailed how the agency fumbled a recall of Magnetix, construction toys that contained dangerously powerful magnets. The agency didn't effectively get the product off store shelves until after a child died and dozens of others were injured.

CPSC fumbles pile up

The CPSC came under more scrutiny in September after the newspaper chronicled how the agency had failed to fully investigate the death of a child in a Simplicity crib. Only after the Tribune began questioning the agency and the company did the CPSC issue a recall for 1 million cribs, the largest recall of full-size cribs in U.S. history. By then, two more babies had died in Simplicity cribs.

In both cases, the death of a child from a flawed or dangerous product was followed by an incomplete CPSC inquiry and a recall that was too late to save other children from death or serious injury by the product.

The legislative push also reflects concern over a wave of lead-tainted toys that became the latest in a series of Chinese-made products -- from deadly pet food to food intended for people -- sending shivers through American consumers.

The lead-related recall in June of 1.5 million Thomas & Friends railway toys shook the toy industry. By year's end, the CPSC had announced 107 lead recalls for nearly 17 million pieces of toys, jewelry, clothing and other items -- as many recalls in a single year as the agency had announced in its entire three-decade history.

In November, the Tribune reported results of independent lab tests performed on about 100 toys, among 800 products it checked for the soft, dense metal that can accumulate in the body and cause learning and developmental delays in children. The CPSC called the newspaper's tests the largest and most comprehensive study into lead in toys ever conducted outside the agency. A dozen toys were found to have violated federal safety limits and an additional nine exceeded stricter Illinois limits.

Republican and Democratic members of Congress have reported for months that constituents were voicing toy-safety concerns in town hall meetings. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) used his congressional office shortly after Thanksgiving to mail constituents in his west suburban Chicago district a tear-off list of dangerous products they could take with them on holiday shopping trips.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the CPSC, convened several hearings on dangerous toys, including two days devoted to lead. He and other committee leaders shepherded the House version of the CPSC reform bill to unanimous passage shortly before lawmakers left for their year-end break.

Some consumer advocates say the proposed law doesn't go far enough in allowing the CPSC to speak freely about unsafe products.

Crafting the legislation

Senate Republicans and the Bush administration oppose several of the Senate proposals, including a transparency provision, which a CPSC spokesman said could open up consumers to "needless concerns." Other congressional Republicans worry the provision could expose toymakers to intellectual property theft if it allowed public access to safety information.